Some Reasons for California’s Continuing Revenue Shortfalls

California’s now $26.6 billion budget shortfall is the result of the state spending one-time money on ongoing commitments is a statement commonly heard as lawmakers debate spending plans.

Like so many clichés, it happens to be right.

While not the sole cause of the state’s current fiscal woes – the recession and the 2 million unemployed Californians left in its wake has played a major role – actions taken 10 years ago contributed to the chronic imbalance between spending and revenues.    Read more »

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No, Not That Murrieta — the Crime Fighting Murrieta

The residents of Murrieta in Riverside County, hometown of former GOP Senate Leader Dennis Hollingsworth, have been good sports for the last 128 or so years.

No, they patiently reply, the town was not named for Joaquin Murrieta, the Gold Rush era bandit, but for local pioneer Juan Murrieta, a sheep rancher and avocado grower.    Read more »

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Governor Cancels Proposed Sale of 11 State Office Buildings

SACRAMENTO – In a move that will save taxpayers $6 billion dollars over the next 35 years, Governor Jerry Brown today (February 9) called off the previous administration’s “short-sighted” proposal to  sell and leaseback 11 state properties.

“The sale and leaseback proposal was short-sighted and would have cost taxpayers billions of dollars in the long-run,” said Brown, “Selling and leasing back the state’s buildings for one-time gains is not prudent.”    Read more »

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Love Stinks — At Least It Does For Skunks This Time of Year

(Editor’s Note: Recently, a subscriber mentioned that he had seen a surprisingly large number of dead skunks littering the highways from Sacramento to Santa Rosa. The chief correspondent of California’s Capitol said, he too had seen numerous largely two-dimensional skunks along Highway 152, Highway 156 Highway 101 and Highway 1 on a late January trip to Monterey as well as along Fair Oaks Blvd.    Read more »

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Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Moe…

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The Origin of the Name of One of California’s Oldest Cities

Founded in 1850, Antioch is one of California’s oldest cities. At the time though it was known as Smith‘s Landing after two of its first residents, Rev. Joseph H. Smith and his brother, W. W. Smith.

They initially homesteaded what was called New York Landing, roughly today’s Pittsburg, on 10 riverfront acres apiece given to them by the first American settler in the area, a Dr.    Read more »

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Ronald Reagan Offers His Views on Government and Politics

“Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.” “The government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: if it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidize it.”    Read more »

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This, Allegedly, From The Gipper…

Sitting down with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev at a summit meeting, President Reagan supposedly told Gorbachev this:

Two guys are standing in line waiting for a couple of vodkas. Finally, one becomes exasperated and says, “This is ridiculous. I’m going to go and kill Gorbachev.”

The guy leaves and comes back 20 minutes later.    Read more »

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It May Cost More to Collect The Cell Phones Than Keep Them

(Editor’s Note: Refreshing to see in the Budget Letter that “ongoing device refresh” is still permissable. In the alliterative Reduction Instructions, is “sum” kind of like “add up?” And in the Exemption Request “Is shared resource pooling what regular folk think of as “sharing?”)

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After 14 Years, a Republican Is Back on the Senate Rostrum

The Democratic majority California State Senate has made history, of a sort.

When Senate President Pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg, a Sacramento Democrat, agreed to GOP Sen. Jean Fuller’s request to be one of the Senate’s presiding officers she became the first Republican to be allowed to do so in 14 years.    Read more »

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